| Topic: | £500+ SPENDING. Council from the top down mired in waste | Forum Home |
| Posted by: | George Knox | |
| Date/Time: | 14/02/11 14:50:00 |
| Council spending detail over £500 is on webpage. http://www2.ealing.gov.uk/services/business/procurement/500/ As the Chief Executive seems to be in the frame at the moment, and someone presumably has brought that to his attention, I had a look at the expenditure in Quarter two 2010. In that period the Excel sheet of invoices tells us that the total expenditure against his department was £299,294.83. Out of that total on Stationery Consumables and Printing his department spent £184,664.48. Obviously I cannot say if that was a lot or a little but what I can and do ask is why on earth does his department need to use 30 different contractors to provide this service for his department. Using 30 contractors for apparently just one department when the country is broke, is just shameful. When looking at the total expenditure for all departments for Stationery Consumables and Printing for this quarter the cost was £382,066.77, but this time there was a monstrous number of 75 different suppliers. Do 3,373 Council employees really need so many suppliers? Have they not heard of bulk buying discounts? Have they not heard of the economy of scale in dealing with just a small handful of contractors? And under the heading of sharing suppliers with other West London Alliance Councils has the Chief Executive considered the further discounts which would then also be available? Once we see his department starting to lead by example, then at the same time some of the massive invoices paid by some other departments need to be looked at to see where else bulk buying would reduce the annual Council spending. I think Minister Pickles would be interested in this example of poor management. Over to you Councillor Taylor. |